Yesterday, Catalan president Carles Puigdemont told the regional parliament: “Spain made us small, but Catalonia is a European affair.”
However Catalan separatists hoping to remain a member of the EU will be disappointed, as they will have to go through a long application process that would most likely be blocked by the Spanish parliament.
Any EU27 state has the right veto a new member joining the bloc – and experts say Spain would “certainly” exercise its power over Catalonia.
Ian Bond, the Director of Foreign Policy at the Centre for European Reform, told Express.co.uk “Spain would certainly veto” Catalan membership if Mr Puigdemont unilaterally declared independence.
Mr Puigdemont has not yet unilaterally declared independence, and has instead suspended his declaration pending talks with the Spanish authorities.
However Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy shows no sign of willingness to negotiate with Catalonia, and continues to insist the referendum was not legitimate, as calling the vote did not follow processes laid out in Spain’s constitution.
This makes it all the more likely Mr Puigdemont will unilaterally declare in the coming weeks – which would make a Spanish veto inevitable if it tried to join the EU as an independent state.
Mr Bond added: “I suppose the picture might change if there were a negotiated solution, but that seems a remote possibility at present.”
In any case, he said: “Even if Catalonia got Madrid to agree to a legal referendum on independence, voted in favour of leaving Spain and got Madrid to grant independence, it would still have to get the unanimous agreement of member-states to give it the status of a candidate for membership.
“It would then have to show in negotiations with the Commission that it could meet all the requirements of an EU state, and get its membership ratified by the European Parliament and by all the other member-states – likely to be a lengthy process.”
Spain is not the only EU27 country that could veto Catalan accession to the block, either.
Other member states with concerns about separatism, like Belgium, France, or Denmark, where there are independence movements in border regions, could also have an interest in making life difficult for a newly-independent state.
Mr Bond said: “I think Spain’s view would carry a lot of weight – if they had done a deal with Catalonia, others might hesitate to cause problems.”
But if Spain and Catalonia fail to come to an agreement, the newborn country will experience a lot of setbacks in its quest to be part of the EU.